Jennifer Aniston is darn near perfect in “Marley & Me,” the December smash coming to DVD March 31.
I’m not talking about her performance. That starts out transparently winsome but matures as Marley’s tale intertwines with the lives of the main characters.
I mean Aniston herself. Figure? Perfect. Hair? Perfect. Tan? Better than perfect, if that’s possible.
And, frankly, it’s a distraction.
“Marley & Me” offers one of the best glimpses of a young marriage we’ve seen in years. Co-star Owen Wilson, he of the tossled hair and imperfect shnoz, is just right as the workaday columnist who runs up against “the world’s worst dog.”
Aniston looks as if she just won the US Weekly “Who Wore It Best” poll. It takes you right out of the picture.
Felt the same way watching Dwayne Johnson in “Race to Witch Mountain.” What cab driver looks like Johnson – chiseled features, immaculately groomed and built like he could tackle an actual mountain?
Sometimes we need perfection in our movie stars. Who’d want a Bond Girl who looked like the Girl Next Door?
But in films like “Marley & Me,” a little less gloss and glamour could add to the performance.
(Photo: Jennifer Aniston looks like a glammed up movie starlet, not a struggling mother raising three kids and an impossible dog, in “Marley & Me.”)
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I know exactly what you mean. The most obvious case I always think of is Andie McDowell in “Four Weddings and a Funeral.” I have liked her in other movies, but in that one she pulls me right out of the story every time.
The same thing happened to me this weekend while seeing “Confessions of a Shopaholic.” Krysten Ritter (the best friend Suze) did not do it for me here. She is fine is other stuff, but not in this movie.
When do we get our turn to be the casting directors? Maybe you could interview one sometime, CT, that seems like it would be a very interesting job.
I’ve been pitching just that kind of profile recently, Tink …
Glamed-up versions of what’s supposed to be everyday people takes me out of a film everytime. Haven’t seen Gran Torino yet, but the biggest complaint I’ve heard about the film is the casting of the Hmong family, whose acting skills weren’t exactly equivalent to Mr. Eastwood’s. Quality issues aside, would it have been any better if he cast the usual assortment of available character actors, fresh out of plastic surgery, to present what is supposed to be a poor immigrant family? Pick your poison.
Torino’s supporting players are, to be kind, less than Oscar worthy. Yet … it worked. It felt authentic and I quickly got wrapped up in their story.
I don’t want to be mean to Aniston, but would love to see her glammed down in “Marley & Me.” Perhaps the pressure to look stunning 24/7 is hard to resist.
I’ll second the casting agent profile. So much of the imagery starts there.
Aniston’s appearance is a driving factor to her being cast: many of the starlets (I’ll not label them actresses) bring in viewers because of their perceived glamor, so I would expect that there is pressure NOT to diminish this aspect of their star power. (The downside being, of course, that glamour nearly always fades, save for the very few genuine legends: Taylor, Loren, et al. This was touched upon in the ‘Meg Ryan’ thread.)
~ Dagnabbbitt
What do you mean? All of my friends and neighbors look exactly like Jennifer in “Marley & Me.” Couldn’t have been more realistic.